Mark van Bommel is the new trainer of FC Antwerp. Technical director Marc Overmars, who recently started at the Belgian club, agreed a contract with the former football international for two seasons. The 45-year-old Van Bommel put his signature on Thursday at his own complex De Bosuil. In the wake of the Dutch trainer, two compatriots come along as assistants. It concerns Andries Ulderink, who recently resigned from FC Twente and John Stegeman, until recently active at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia.
The appointment of Van Bommel had been in the air for some time and has now been made official in Belgium after the season has ended. FC Antwerp finished fourth in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League, which means that the new season will start in the second preliminary round of the Conference League in mid-July. Monday made the club the resignation of Danish trainer Brian Priske announced.
Van Bommel has to fulfill the plans of the very wealthy club owner and builder Paul Gheysens in Antwerp. Gheysens, who took over FC Antwerp after it was promoted to the highest level in Belgium in 2017, has great ambitions with the Great Old, judging by the tens of millions he has invested in the club in recent years. In February he brought Marc Overmars to the port city, shortly after the technical man had to leave Ajax because of transgressive behavior among female colleagues.
Van Bommel had a successful playing career that led him to international top clubs such as Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona and AC Milan. As a trainer, his career started less energetically. After working as an assistant coach to his father-in-law Bert van Marwijk for the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Australia, he became head coach at his former club PSV in 2018, where he was fired after a year and a half. His second adventure as head coach also ended prematurely, when the German club VfL Wolfsburg fired him last year after thirteen official games.
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